Roller skate wheel



Sem -1,1936. L KQAPP- 2,052,979

ROLLER SKATE WHEEL Filed Nov. 9, 1955 Patented Sept. 1, 1936 PATENT OFFICE ROLLER SKATE WHEEL Leland G. Knapp, Chicago, Ill.,'assignor to Montgomery Ward & Co., Incorporated, Chicago, 111., a corporationof Illinois Application November 9, 1933, Serial No. 697,239

1 Claim. (01. 208-181) The primary object of the present invention is to improve the construction of wheels used with roller skates so as to render them more durable and lasting.

As now constructed, wheels employed for the purposes indicated wear out quickly. They are incapable of resisting the rough usage to which they are most commonly subjected, as when the user skates upon cement and concrete walks and other surfaces offering high abrasive action to the wheels. In the general form and construction of skate wheels employed in the present-day skate, only a relative small quantity of metal is present in their rims. This is due to the fact that the wheels are formed by stamping and bending, and the rims are constituted by overlapping layers which provide but little thickness.

- The outer layer therefore receives the direct wear,

and when this outer layer becomes worn the life of the wheel is gone. A new wheel must be substituted if use of the skate is to be continued.

The present invention aims to provide a novel form of skate wheel by which the objections and disadvantages above pointed out are overcome. It contemplates a wheel wherein the rim is formed of a single thickness of massed metal to provide the'necessary wear-resisting properties to meet the rough usage to which the wheel is subjected, thereby strengthening the wheel and imparting 30 to the same greater durability and longevity.

A further object of the present invention is the provision of a wheel of the character referred to which embodies in its construction such an arrangement and organization of parts as will permit the same to be manufactured at relatively low cost, and thus enable its use in the low priced skates now found generally in commerce.

A further object of the invention is the provision of a wheel of sectional formation, the sec- 40 tions being of complemental character, and thereby capable of production by a single die. Novel means are employed for holding the sections, when assembled, from relative movement, thus freeing the fastening means for the members from 5 shearing strains which would operate to release the fastening means and destroy the integrity of the wheel.

Other objects and advantages of the invention will appear as the nature of the improvements 50 is better understood, the invention consisting substantially in the novel construction, combination and arrangement of parts hereinafter fully described, illustrated in the accompanying drawing, and pointed out in the appended claim.

55 While the form of the invention herein shown and described is believed to be a preferred embodiment thereof, it is to be understood that the same is susceptible of various changes in the form, proportion and minor details of the parts, so that the present disclosure is to be considered 5 from the illustrative standpoint rather than as imposing limitations on the invention.

In the drawing,

Fig. 1 is a side elevation of a skate wheel constructed in accordance with the present inven- 10 tion;

Fig. 2 is a vertical transverse sectional view thereof, on an enlarged scale, as on the line 22 of Fig. 1;

Fig. 3 is also a transverse sectional view of the 15 wheel, the viewpoint being at right angles to that of Fig. 2, as on the line 3-3 of Fig. 2; and

Fig. 4 is a disassociated sectional View of the components of the wheel, the balls being omitted.

Referring in detail to the accompanying draw- 20 ing, the numeral I0 designates an elongated sleeve, which constitutes the hub of the herein described wheel. At the center of the sleeve I8 is located an annular flange II, which is of integral formation with the sleeve. The metal of the sleeve I0 merges into the flange II at either side of the flange so that a fillet I2 is provided in the angles between the side faces of the flange II and the outer surface of the sleeve I0. These fillets I2 have their exposed faces curved and thereby provide raceways for a plurality of antifriction balls I3 which are arrangedin two separate series. One series of these balls is arranged at each side of the flange I I.

The wheel proper comprises a pair of complemental sections I4. Each section includes a web I5 at the inner end of which is located an outwardly curved hub I6, which hub has an opening I! of greater diameter than the diameter of the sleeve I0, so as to loosely fit over the adjacent end of said sleeve and permit the sections I 4 to rotate with reference to the sleeve. The inner face of each of the hubs I6 is curved on an arc corresponding to the curvature of the balls I3, and said curved inner surfaces fit against the balls I3 so as to preserve rolling contact therewith. The hubs I6 constitute cages for the respective series of the balls I3, thereby confining the balls in rolling contact with the sleeve I0, and particularly with respect to the fillets l2 thereof.

The opposing inner faces of the sections I4 have close-fitting contact, these faces being plane, so that each section will contact and fit closely to the other section at all points throughout its area. That the sections I 4 may be held in fixed the rupture of these rivets the sections I4 would separate, and thereby destroy the integrity ofthe wheel. To prevent such shearing movement of the sections I4, with the resultantflaction'indicated, on the rivets I9, the'inneriace'of' each of,

the sections I4 is provided with an annular groove 20, said grooves being broughtqinto-registry with each other when the sections I4 are brought together. Fitted within the grooves 20 is'a'split ring 2 I, said ring being formed preferably of wire of a suitable gauge to permit'the ring 2| snugly to fit the grooves 28. With the'sections I4 assembled, and the ring 2I disposed therebetween in the grooves 25 thereof, it will be seenthat an interlock is provided between. the sections I4 which will prevent relative movement of the sections with respect to each other, the strains of such movement' 'being taken up by the ring 26, and thus freeing the sections I4 from imposing on the fastening rivets I9 any movement which would tend to shear the fastenings I9.

At the outer ends of the webs I5 are located rim members 22. These members extend at right angles to the webs I5, and when the wheel sections I4 are brought together they cooperate to form a continuous tread surface for the wheel. The thickness of the rim members 22 is greater than the thickness of the webs I5, and this masses the metal in the rim members to the required degree for imparting to the rim the necessary thickness. Thus, a solid body of metal constitutes the tread surface of the wheel, and thereby great-- 1y prolongs the life of the tread surface over .the laminated form of'treads which characterizes-the general-type of skate wheel now in commonnuse.

Various expedients and processes of manufacture'may beemployedfor massing the material in the rim members 22% indicated, it being a desideratum of this invention that. in the formation or blanking of the wheel sections I4'the distributionof the metal shall be such as to concentrate in therim members 22 the desiredmass of metal to accomplish the purposes for which the present wheel has been designed.

In producing the wheel sections I4, due to their complemental characteristics, a single forming die will sufiice, it being but necessary to reverse two of the sections in relation to each other in order to provide the requisite sections to complete a wheel.

In assemblingthe parts of the herein described wheel, one series of the balls is applied to one side of the annular flange I I of the hub sleeve I0,

"orthe balls may be positioned upon the cage I6 of one-of the wheel sections I4, one end of the sleeve I0 being then introduced between the balls thus positioned so astobring the flange I I of the 'sleeve IE) into contact with the balls I3.

The balls of the other series then may be positioned upon-thefiange I Iatthe side opposite to that to which the first series of balls has been applied, whereupon the other wheel section I4 is brought into assembled-relationwith the first section, it being understood that the splitring 2I has been positioned; in the grooves 26 of the sections I4, and

thus interlocking these sections one with the other. Upon application of the'fastening rivets I9 to the openings I8 of the sections I4, and their upsetting, the wheel'seotions I4 will beheld: in tight or fixed relation, and the wheel is then: ready for use.

The present invention sharply distinguishes from the construction of skate wheel now com-' monly employed because of the single thickness of the rim sections 22, due to -which the metal is massed in the rim, The wear is received by this of each wheel. section being provided withi-an'.

annular groove; ofa'split ringdisposedin'said groovestolock the wheel-sections against relative movement. andtthereby'free saidiasteningxmeans from shearing action incident to the relative movement of the wheelfi sections with respect to each other.

' GLKNAPP. 

